Wading pools drained, refilled too frequently, say some parents

Some Toronto residents are frustrated that the constant draining and refilling of city wading pools means more waiting and less wading for the kids that use them.

“They’re draining it almost as often as it’s full … here it seems like it’s drained every couple of hours,” said Ruth Rosenblood, who brings her child to the pool.

At Dufferin Grove Park people have become upset with the amount of time the pool is out of use for draining and refilling — which did not used to occur so frequently.

Four years ago the province’s health ministry brought in new guidelines that called for wading pools — where water is not recirculated — to be drained every four hours.

“In the end, out of eight hours, there might be four hours that no children would be allowed in the pool,” said Jutta Mason, public space advocate. “And we pretty soon found out that this problem exists all over town.”

One local parent filed an access to information request with the city asking for all the incidents of health problems caused by wading pools and were unable to find any outbreaks at any pools over the last 20 years.

“We hope through those practices that waterborne diseases are minimized, that's the whole intent of setting this standard,” said Marco Vittiglio with public health.